Program to protect reporters raises doubts in Mexico

The Mexican government is currently putting together
a program, it says, that will help reduce one of the most brutal problems for
journalists: their lack of protection from death threats from drug cartels,
government officials, and ordinary criminals. Senior officials at the Ministry
of Interior told CPJ that they expect to offer at-risk journalists a range of
protective measures, including bodyguards, armored cars and/or stipends to
relocate to other parts of the country.

But many
severe problems are ahead, like the widespread lack of trust by local
journalists of law enforcement officials. Twenty-two journalists have
been murdered since President Felipe Calderón Hinojosa took office in December
2006, at least eight in direct reprisal for reporting on crime and corruption. It
is generally assumed that government and police at all levels have been
penetrated by organized crime. Journalists will thus
oppose having their protection handled by people who may be working for the
same groups that threatened them. Nor will journalists likely be happy
receiving police protection if they believe government officials are behind the
threats--as has repeatedly happened in the past.

Government officials said the program initially will
rely on federal police, but in the near future, they said, they want to extend
the program to the states and bring in state police. That may cause more trouble,
however, because state police are usually seen as far more corrupt than their
federal counterparts.

Those are problems can be worked out as the program
itself is being designed, according to Omeheira López Reyna, head of the Ministry of Interior, who is responsible for the
program's operation. At this point, she said, there is a broad plan with
details to be supplied over the next two months. The government has to provide
Congress with something concrete on this matter very soon in order to meet a
deadline for a vote on next year's budget bill, López Reyna added. When that's
been done, she said, press support groups and journalists will be consulted
about how best to implement the program.

There is considerable skepticism among Mexican press
groups, which have strongly denounced the program as it stands. The groups said
it is designed and run entirely by government officials who have no
understanding of what it's like to be a journalist in Mexico.

The program foresees including representatives from
the National Human Rights Commission and the U.N. local offices. But these
representatives will only have an advisory status, with no say in how the whole
thing runs. The government is also planning to appoint three journalists with
same status.

Besides criticism to the program's design, local
press groups and many reporters conceded that they too don't know if they can
trust the government to protect journalists under threat. Therefore, they told
CPJ, they are not willing to lend their names to a government program designed
to do so.